www.depauluk.org
Despite the faults on the application itself, it is a smart way of getting attention.
I saw it on a review in www.civilsociety.co.uk
iHebo is a young homeless person who will be living in your iPhone for three days. You will have to feed him, be there for him day and night, providing money, food and support. He will alert you when he gets into trouble or needs your help (the alerts do not work). And the speed of your responses will make the difference between him making it through in one piece, or becoming addicted to drugs.
The application has 68861 revieiws, which proves it is a success as a game, however there is no information on the web for how much money it has raised for the charity itself since the application is a free game with an icon for donations which are made via text message.
The concept:
From Depaul UK:
"Its easy to ignore a homeless person as you walk past them on the street, but after having one on your phone for three days we hope you can see that the issues behind youth homelessness are complex and varied. Young people often become homeless through no fault of their own - often fleeing violence or abuse.
Just giving loose change won't solve the problem. Organisations like Depaul UK work hard to provide the support and structure needed to help young people get their lives back on track.
We hope that the iHobo app made you think about the issues behind youth homelessness. If you would like to continue to support the work of Depaul UK and young homeless people there are lots of things you can do."
MY OBSERVATION> iHobo is interesting at first because of its idea - "having a homeless guy on your phone that you have to care for".
The game however only gives you those 3 options (sleeping bag, change and a sandwich). After some time those options don't always work (if you miss notifications). As I have an iPhone 4, the application's notifications do not work so I missed quite a few calls from my iHobo. After a while the only thing he will accept is money (change) and he will buy drugs with it. There is no way to win it. It will always come to the same ending.
My boyfriend has the iPhone 3GS so the warnings work just like a text message. He was so annoyed with it that he wanted to delete the app (I didn't let him, but this is probably what happened to a lot of people).
Also a friend of mine saw me taking care of the iHobo and mentioned he had it once (and he didn't even know what was it about).
I wonder how many people delete the app before it is finished and how many people donate after getting to the end.
MY OBSERVATION> iHobo is interesting at first because of its idea - "having a homeless guy on your phone that you have to care for".
The game however only gives you those 3 options (sleeping bag, change and a sandwich). After some time those options don't always work (if you miss notifications). As I have an iPhone 4, the application's notifications do not work so I missed quite a few calls from my iHobo. After a while the only thing he will accept is money (change) and he will buy drugs with it. There is no way to win it. It will always come to the same ending.
My boyfriend has the iPhone 3GS so the warnings work just like a text message. He was so annoyed with it that he wanted to delete the app (I didn't let him, but this is probably what happened to a lot of people).
Also a friend of mine saw me taking care of the iHobo and mentioned he had it once (and he didn't even know what was it about).
I wonder how many people delete the app before it is finished and how many people donate after getting to the end.
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